Design Trophies

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Rukkian
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Design Trophies

Post by Rukkian »

For the first time this year my son's pack (of which this is my third year as pwd chair) will be giving actual trophies for design. 2+ years ago they gave away [crummy] prints that the cub scouts did not want, last year I switched to giving out certificates that we printed to each scout which is nice.

This year I proposed and it was agreed upon to give actual trophies (partly because I feel bad that my son has gotten 2nd, 1st, 1st for racing in the pack so far and I have 2 sons this year). My sons so far have wanted to go for speed and speed alone.

Our strategy we are planning to use is give every person that shows up (scouts, parents, leaders, siblings) 2 votes through some sort of marbles, chips, etc, and have them vote for the cars they think are most deserving, and then handing out 3 tropies for the top 3 vote getters in the pack. My question is on how to handle cars that came precut cars. We have used the district (and council) rules as our pack rules which allow precut (unfinished, unpainted, without wheels, etc) cars to be used if the parents do not have the time or knowledge to help out. We are offering 3 workshops over 6 weeks to make sure everybody has access, but have already had 1 scout show up to a workshop with a pre-cut and had another parent ask if they could use the cars they alredy purchased.

I would think these should not qualify for design awards, as it defeats the purpose, but am not sure how to handle it. My options I thought of (feel free to add others)

1. Let them be eligible
2. Let people go ahead and vote, but just disregard any votes for them
3. Not put a box for votes to be put into by these cars (like the open and outlaw classes)

Also, if we do #2, do we tell the scout?

We still have 4 weeks before the derby, and a pack meeting tomorrow night, which I could make an annoucement, but I am looking for some direction before then.

Thanks for your help.
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FatSebastian
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Re: Design Trophies

Post by FatSebastian »

Rukkian wrote:I would think these should not qualify for design awards, as it defeats the purpose, but am not sure how to handle it.
Some builders get design ideas from kits, but do not actually use a pre-cut block. One year my son wanted to build a (rather easy) design that he saw in a picture or book somewhere. We did not know that his chosen design also existed as a pre-cut kit. Because pre-cuts were against our local rules, his entry raised a few questions (especially after it won).

Because pre-cut cars are not against the rules, and because there may be difficulty in determining which cars are pre-cut and which aren't, I wonder if you have little choice but to allow their eligibility?
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Stan Pope
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Re: Design Trophies

Post by Stan Pope »

Design is more than shape! It includes finish (sanded smooth, corners rounded when appropriate), color use (selection, application, artistic quality), additions (license plates, rear view mirrors, ...), and probably more that I can't put a name to.

You might recommend to all to give more weight to what the Cub Scout did vs what the Cub Scout bought, with pics of some common undecorated precuts and commercially available decals and "skins".
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dna1990
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Re: Design Trophies

Post by dna1990 »

If your voters were semi-experience builders, it would not matter. As they would be able to appreciate which cars had more put into them than purchased. But you will have plenty of voters that may like the purchased aligator skin over a precut wedge...?

If the trophy is for 'crowd favorite', then all cars that enter via the rules should be eligible. If you really want to have a design/craftsman/creativity/ingenuity trophy - then I say you need to hand select a judging panel that has some varied backgrounds but can pick out what the scout did over what the scout may have bought.
Rukkian
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Re: Design Trophies

Post by Rukkian »

Guys, thanks for the replies, maybe I should just let it go this year and see how it goes.
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Stan Pope
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Re: Design Trophies

Post by Stan Pope »

dna's got a good point. Perhaps you take the best of both worlds? Some awards by a panel of experienced and/or trained judges and some by voting.

Plan how to handle the overlap ... if you don't want one car to take trophies in two trophies? A way to do this is to have the judges rank cars beyond the number of places to be awarded. Then when the judges rankings are in and the votinng ranking is in, work your way down from 1st place in each, 2nd place in each, ..., dropping cars where you have decided that a car can't win a trophy from two categories.
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